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The B2B Marketing BlogMon, 19 Nov 2018 13:11:23 +0000en-UShourly1The Seven Best Ways to Increase Social Media Engagement for Your Businesshttps://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-seven-best-ways-to-increase-social-media-engagement-for-your-business/
https://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-seven-best-ways-to-increase-social-media-engagement-for-your-business/#respondFri, 16 Nov 2018 11:24:49 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6713Guest post by Elmira Assiyeva. Social media has transformed the way people interact with each other and how businesses market their offerings. But sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating to craft perfect social media posts, and schedule them at the optimal times, yet still get no likes, comments, pins, retweets, or shares on them. So, how do you […]

Social media has transformed the way people interact with each other and how businesses market their offerings. But sometimes it’s incredibly frustrating to craft perfect social media posts, and schedule them at the optimal times, yet still get no likes, comments, pins, retweets, or shares on them.

It may feel as though there is some sort of hidden strategy that enables some people or brands to generate more engagement than you so. But there is a lot you can do to increase your social media engagement. To help you better connect with your audience and improve your social media effectiveness, here are seven ways you can increase social media engagement.

But first, just to clarify our definitions, what exactly is social media engagement?

What is Social Media Engagement?

Image credit: Sprout Social

Social media engagement isn’t simply about garnering a few more likes and shares from customers on social media. It is more about building a long-term relationship that requires dedication, willingness to adapt, and the commitment to provide a superior and consistent customer experience over the long term.

1. Go Visual – Use Images & Videos

Visual content is crucial for social media engagement. Social media posts with visuals—images, photos, screen shots, infographics, charts, graphs, videos—inspire more engagement than those without pictures. However, not just any visual content will be helpful; it needs to be crafted well.

Each social media platform has different specifications for picture sizes. To assure your images look good—not stretched, distorted, cut-off, or pixelated—make use of one of several social media image size guides.

Other than images, what else helps increase engagement on social media?

Ask Specific and Pointed Questions: To pique your followers’ curiosity and get people talking on social media, ask questions. Mix open-ended questions with simple “yes” / “no” queries. These work best for generating click-throughs. For instance, are you wasting your time on social media?

Run a survey or poll: Another good way to create engaging social media posts is using polls or surveys. Not only do the result from polls give you data about your customer’s pain points and issues, but they also give your audience a chance to feel heard. Social media polls and surveys are the simple tools for quickly obtaining customer feedback. For example, Walmart is constantly utilizing surveys and polls to learn about their social media followers.

Use relevant hashtags : Social media posts with at least one hashtag have 12.6% more engagement than those without. Hashtags help people to locate your content. Just be careful not to go overboard and over-use them; three hashtags is generally plenty for any post.

hashtags = increased engagement.

hashtags = gaining potential clients.

While these techniques can help, none of them assure engagement. You still have to offer value to your audience! It doesn’t look great to ask a question that no one answers or have a survey that scarcely anyone responded to.

2. Initiate the Conversation with Your Audience

One of the fastest ways to spark engagement on social media is to jump right in and start a conversation. It may not be as hard as you think! Talking to your audience on social media is much the same as talking to them in person.

Here are four ways you can break the ice and start the engaging conversations with your audience on social platforms:

– Begin discussions on recent industry news.

– Ask conversation starter questions from your audience.

– Kick off a conversation by starting a debate (be careful with emotionally-charged topics though).

– Humanize your brand and increase engagement by thanking people for following.

For example, here’s one way Netflix initiated a conversation with its fans that span different parts of the world.

3. Hold Contests & Sponsor Giveaways

Running a social media contest that gets users engaging with your brand is a great way to raise brand awareness and attract new customers while retaining the old ones.

There are different types of contests you can host, from primary sweepstakes to trivia questions to competitions based on creativity. Facebook and Instagram are two social media channels that are excellent for contests.

Holding contest and giveaways can be effective and popular, particularly for retail or hospitality marketers looking for ways to use social media for your small business. Holding regular contests and giveaways can help keep your audience hooked.

Here are a few essential points to know before you start holding a contest:

Free giveaways motivate everyone. Ask people to tweet with a specific hashtag, like or share your content, or become a follower for a chance to win a gift. That gift could be a freebie, discount code or perhaps a promotionally priced membership.

Make your contest as fair as possible and give all users an equal chance of being picked for the prize when choosing a winner. To ensure a fair contest, make use of a random selection tool.

Be clear about your goals and precisely how you want your audience to participate for the best outcome. Before you launch your contest, define easy, simple rules.

For instance, style and health expert Biancajade launched a campaign that gave away a hair color kit with the goal of expanding the reach of her post by getting people tagged in it (and she succeeded in that).

4. Humanize your Brand through Emoticons

Using emoticons is a fun way to get your audience to engage with your posts. They identify not only things and activities but also emotions, making it easier for followers to understand brand messages.

Emojis in tweets can increase engagement by 25.4 percent, and emojis in a Facebook post can boost the number of likes by 57 percent, and comments and shares by 33 percent.

However, make sure you use them well. A few emojis per post will suffice for most brands. Including an excessive number of emojis makes your social media posts complicated and hard to read (and a little desperate). Use them sparingly and ensure they fit your brand.

For instance, Domino’s Pizza is brilliantly utilizing emojis. This is helpful for showing clients what each post is about in a quick, visual manner.

5. Give a Shout-Out to Clients and Partners

Expressing gratitude toward your fans, partners, and customers publicly on social media sites is an excellent way to show them you appreciate them.

Most consumers value being recognized by the brands they follow online, and chances are they’ll share your post or retweet it to their networks, creating online word of mouth that can increase your reach and enhance your engagement.

6. Monitor both Tagged and Untagged Brand Mentions

Consumers and business buyers won’t always use an @ sign when mentioning your company or product on social media, so monitoring only tagged brand mentions means you’ll miss out on a lot of conversations. For example, this is an untagged mention of Domino’s Pizza.

Responding to untagged mentions like this helps increase your social media reach and visibility, and can lead to greater sharing as well. This is where social media listening comes in. Using a sophisticated too helps you discover and respond to more of the people talking about your brand on social media.

7. Post Consistently on Social Media Platforms

One last tactic to bolster your social media engagement is to stay active and post consistently.

Keep in mind that social media moves fast! The constant stream of tweets, posts, and updates reduce the chances your content will be seen or interacted with.

People will engage more with you and will remember you if they see you consistently in their social media feeds.

Thus, it’s vital to post frequently on a regular basis. This won’t only help maintain your following but also increase your fan base and expand engagement with your posts.

Wrapping up

Earning social media engagement isn’t rocket science, nor there is some secret recipe behind it. The keys are to design engaging content, stay consistent, and make it easy for your customers to engage.

What do you think? Do you have examples of social media posts you have created that used these tactics? I hope you find these social media engagement tips useful. Please share your experience and recommendations in the comment section below.

Elmira Assiyeva is a content developer at Statusbrew. She’s fascinated by storytelling, entrepreneurship, and travel, and loves to write about social media and digital marketing strategies.

]]>https://webbiquity.com/social-media-marketing/the-seven-best-ways-to-increase-social-media-engagement-for-your-business/feed/0Marketing Technology Buy The Bookhttps://webbiquity.com/cool-web-tools/marketing-technology-buy-the-book/
https://webbiquity.com/cool-web-tools/marketing-technology-buy-the-book/#commentsTue, 13 Nov 2018 05:59:05 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6724With more than 90% of B2B marketers now embracing content marketing success depends not on producing more content but better content. And marketing technology can help, from ideation and research through production, promotion, and analytics. So it’s no surprise that 70% of marketers say they plan to spend more on content marketing in the coming year, […]

]]>With more than 90% of B2B marketers now embracing content marketing success depends not on producing more content but better content. And marketing technology can help, from ideation and research through production, promotion, and analytics.

With thousands of tools on the market across dozens of categories, it’s challenging to identify the most important types of tools to invest in, choose the best tools for your needs within those categories, and integrate all the tools in martech stack (or more accurately, your martech matrix) to make all the pieces work together.

This ebook organizes more than 750 tools across 47 categories (such as visual content design, video editing, social media monitoring and management, all-in-one SEO tools, marketing automation, and web analytics) into a logical cycle of content planning, production, promotion, and measurement—which feeds back into planning.

Making the right martech choices can help your team expand its capabilities, collaborate more effectively, and operate more efficiently. The wrong choices, on the other hand, not only waste money but actually damage productivity by forcing your team to spend more time managing the technology than actually using it, and re-implementing technology to replace inadequate tools.

Before your organization spends hundreds or even thousands of dollars on new marketing, sales, and customer service tools in the coming year, visit Amazon and spend $4.99 on a guide that can help you develop a content marketing technology strategy and choose the best applications to make it work.

What Others Are Saying

Here are a few comments from content marketing pros.

“When it comes to a comprehensive knowledge of content marketing software, there’s no one more dialed in than Tom Pick. He’s my go-to resource on this topic, and if you’re smart, he’ll soon be yours, as well. This book is a definite must-read for any marketer using or wanting to begin using content marketing as part of an integrated marketing strategy.” — Shelly Kramer, CEO, V3 Broadsuite

“Trying to determine which tools belong in your content marketing stack? Tom Pick has done the research for you. Far more than a list, this book places the different types of tools in context, to help you understand what fits where, and it links through to additional detail anywhere you need it.” — Michael Brenner, CEO, Marketing Insider Group

“Tom is a king of useful listicles. He provides the most complete and actionable lists in the industry: Those are always full of useful tools, insightful comparisons, and feature reviews. If you want to discover new, more effective ways to do what you are already doing, make sure to download this eBook and get ready to make lots of notes.” — Ann Smarty, brand manager at Ninjas Marketing and founder at MyBlogU.com

“Seriously—no matter your experience level, you need to see this beast-of-a-guide if you’re involved in business or marketing (not only content marketing!). From productivity tools to image editing and content distribution apps, you’ll be glad you took a peek at this HUGE treasure trove of software goodies…A digital marketer’s go-to reference piece if I ever saw one.” — Sam Hurley, content marketing influencer & founder of OPTIM-EYEZ

]]>https://webbiquity.com/cool-web-tools/marketing-technology-buy-the-book/feed/2How Did We Do??!! How (Not) to Ruin the Customer Experience by Asking for Feedbackhttps://webbiquity.com/customer-experience/how-did-we-do-how-not-to-ruin-the-customer-experience-by-asking-for-feedback/
https://webbiquity.com/customer-experience/how-did-we-do-how-not-to-ruin-the-customer-experience-by-asking-for-feedback/#respondTue, 06 Nov 2018 13:06:13 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6707For most of corporate history, most companies haven’t really wanted to hear from their customers. Not that the opinions of buyers didn’t matter; of course, private enterprises have always thrived (or not) based on satisfying consumer desires. Companies for decades ran focus groups and test markets, and of course monitored sales success. But—as long as […]

]]>For most of corporate history, most companies haven’t really wanted to hear from their customers.

Not that the opinions of buyers didn’t matter; of course, private enterprises have always thrived (or not) based on satisfying consumer desires. Companies for decades ran focus groups and test markets, and of course monitored sales success.

But—as long as things were going reasonably well, they didn’t go out of their way to solicit feedback. Actually, they made it quite difficult. Prior to widespread Internet adoption, it often took the investigative skills of Sherlock Holmes combined with the determination of Oprah Winfrey to even find an address or phone number for a corporate “customer opinion” department.

Actually reaching a human being was even more challenging. Some consumer products companies would send out generous free product vouchers to anyone whose letter (positive or negative) reached them, just because it was so unusual.

The Internet didn’t change things much, at least initially. Companies now included generic email addresses (i.e., feedback@company.com) on their websites, but input didn’t seem to have much of an effect and responses (if a response was provided) were generally canned and non-committal.

But the situation did begin to change about 10 years ago. Yelp, founded in 2004, began to get traction. The first research studies were released showing that online reviews could affect sales. Web searches for “online reviews” took off, doubling between July 2008 and January 2011. Bloggers started writing about how online reviews help with SEO.

Within a decade, eons of business practice were reversed. Suddenly, companies went from not caring about anything you had to say to caring about everything related to your experience. At first, people found this newfound interest flattering. They really CARE about my experience? Sure, I’ll fill out a survey!

But as the “we need your feedback!” communications (emails, automated phone surveys, text messages…) have proliferated, they’ve become annoying. Spend a weekend shopping, running errands, and maybe getting the car serviced, and you may well end up five, six, even 10 desperate emails in your inbox on Monday morning. How did we do? We want your opinion! We need your feedback!

Now, the opportunity to provide (relatively brief) feedback on significant purchases is still appreciated by most consumers and B2B buyers. But companies have gone over the line, in many cases, in two ways: asking for feedback too often (really, Best Buy, you need to know about my “shopping experience” because I stopped in to pick up a $30 Ethernet switch?) and for feedback that is too detailed.

I don’t often go off on rants, but as Shep Hyken recently wrote in Forbes:

Today, 89% of companies compete primarily on the basis of customer experience – up from just 36% in 2010. But while 80% of companies believe they deliver ‘super experiences,’ only 8% of customers agree. In other words, companies have a long way to go…Everything a brand does (plays) a role in shaping the customer’s experience.”

Customer experience is really important. Screwing that up in the process of asking customers about their experience is colossally stupid.

How to Ask for Feedback: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Here’s a bad example. I recently called Geek Squad for support. They were very helpful and resolved my issue. The support experience was actually excellent. But the experience of providing feedback about my support was awful. They sent an email pleading for my opinion ,so I clicked on the link. Here is the fourth screen of their online survey (first off, no survey should have four screens of questions):

The fifth screen was pretty much the same. I don’t know how many screens there were in total; I shut if down after the sixth screen of questions.

Excel Energy managed to outdo that one. Even shrinking down the display size in my browser to 67%, I could not get the entire survey onto one screen. They sent out a technician to replace a noisy fan in my furnace. He did a fine job. It would take longer to complete this survey than it took him to replace the part.

And seriously, they couldn’t have pre-filled a few fields (name, address, appliance serviced date, etc.) with data they should already have?

Who does it right? Sam’s Club. Their feedback form is three questions—plus the option to provide more information if you’ve really got something, good or bad, to tell them.

And they actually read the feedback. I recently responded with a suggestion about how they could cut the nine required clicks every time one fills up at their gas pumps to one click (which makes a big difference when you’re pumping gas in Minnesota and it’s 30 below zero with a howling wind).

The local store manager responded the next day, saying it was a great idea and she would pass it along to the home office. Now, I’m not holding my breath for Bentonville to actually implement my idea, but the local manager’s responsiveness was impressive nonetheless.

How to Ask About the Customer Experience Without Wrecking the Customer Experience

Basically, show respect for the customer’s time. Let them know you value their feedback, but understand they’ve got lots of other things to do. Specifically:

Make it matter: Don’t send surveys too often or for trivial purchases. If you’re Best Buy and someone buys a new laptop or a big flatscreen TV from your store—sure, send a survey. But for a $20 wireless mouse or some earbuds? Skip it. Keep in mind you aren’t the only vendor sending surveys to this individual.

Keep it short.

(See what I did there?)

Make it actionable: For each question, ask yourself first: what specific action will I take or what practice will I change based on answers to this question? If the answers don’t prompt change, they are just superfluous data. Drop those questions.

Prefill known information: Don’t ask for data you should already have, like date or service or product purchased. (See Excel example above.) It annoys the recipient and makes you look incompetent.

Offer options: Walmart does a great job with this—ask a few quick questions, but give the customer the option to answer additional questions or provide more information if there’s an issue. If you really need to use a longer survey form, offer an incentive, such as a gift card, for completing the whole thing.

Don’t misuse the data. Most customer service reps (CSRs) are smart, diligent, helpful people. But all are human, and therefore none are perfect.

When consumers hear stories of managers berating, denying bonuses to, or even firing CSRs for not getting 5-star ratings across the board, they generally respond in one of two ways: they either stop completing that company’s surveys, or they just give up and answer with 5 stars for every question so as not to get the CSR into trouble.

Either destroys the usefulness of the feedback. If I have a minor problem with a company’s service, I should be able to report that without worrying that I’m wrecking a CSR’s day, or worse, livelihood.

Also understand the reasons for the rating. A CSR may get rated less than five stars for reasons that have nothing to do with his or her competence or performance. Most Comcast CSRs, for example, are smart, helpful, and friendly. But the company’s phone tree is an exercise in frustration seemingly co-designed by Franz Kafka and the Marquis de Sade.

Customer experience matters. Understanding what works and what can be improved is critical to optimizing that experience. Just be careful not to let bad measurement practices ruin a good experience.

]]>https://webbiquity.com/customer-experience/how-did-we-do-how-not-to-ruin-the-customer-experience-by-asking-for-feedback/feed/0Website Hosting, Coding and Conversion Best Practices for Small Businesshttps://webbiquity.com/website-design/website-hosting-coding-and-conversion-best-practices-for-small-business/
https://webbiquity.com/website-design/website-hosting-coding-and-conversion-best-practices-for-small-business/#commentsTue, 30 Oct 2018 10:42:12 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6703Guest post by Riya Sander. Running a small business often means having a busy web server. In today’s digital world, a website is one of the most important components of a small business marketing plan. For a growing number of companies from SaaS developers to ecommerce to content providers, their website is the small business. […]

Running a small business often means having a busy web server. In today’s digital world, a website is one of the most important components of a small business marketing plan. For a growing number of companies from SaaS developers to ecommerce to content providers, their website is the small business. Running on different types of servers can mean varied results in speed, giving you different site speed and user experience at different times.

It can also leave you paying premium hosting fees during your business downtime, such as the wee early morning hours. Unless your business is online 24 hours a day and running in different time zones, you may not be getting the most out of premium web hosting rates.

What is a small business owner to do? To increase overall website conversion rate, analyze your landing pages and the conversion rate optimization (CRO) tools and best practices being used on the site. Choosing between the seemingly endless list of optimization options and deciding which areas to focus on and choices to make for your business can be difficult.

One of the most important decisions that you might make for your website conversion rate, however, is the choice between server hosts. Compare shared, dedicated and VPS hosting, for example. These types of server hosting can provide very different results, depending on your speeds and premiums.

Buying Dedicated, Shared Hosting Versus VPS Hosting

Server hosting is one of the most important, and potentially expensive, decisions that small business owners can make about their online presence. A dedicated server is easily one of the best choices you can make for site speed and privacy. If you manage lots of data on your website, you may want to choose this option. You can get large amounts of data transfer and speed with this type of account. You can optimize servers with dedicated service and attention, and if you have a large number of website pages this is one of the best ways to increase site speed.

VPS, or virtual private hosting, gives you virtual hosting on someone else’s server via the Internet. You will often pay a lower cost for this type of service, but you may have fewer security features. If you store any financial or customer data on your site, this may leave you more vulnerable than you would be with a dedicated server.

Optimizing Website Code for Speed

Perhaps a lesser known way to optimize your website conversion rates with better speeds is to edit code on your website. Whether you use JavaScript, Ruby, Python, or another coding system to customize your website, keeping code clean is by far one of the most important things you can do to keep your website working at its fastest rate.

A few things you can do are to make sure you are running on the most recent version of your code languages, update to HTML5 or HTML6, and check your code against current algorithms. The updates here keep your website compatible with the fastest versions of web browsers and help your site stay mobile friendly. In addition, you can choose to standardize your code with website templates and a hosting site that hosts those templates also. This can be a great way to get some help with automatic updates to your website widgets and other accessories. It can also be a great way to manage stored data.

Optimizing Mobile Pages for Conversion

With the increase of mobile Internet use and the broad adoption of smartphones and tablets, one of the best things you can do to increase website conversion for your small business is to make sure it is mobile friendly. Keep in mind that page loading time on mobile is also an issue, and update your code as needed to make sure that your pages load quickly on a phone.

Mobile friendly updates for websites include brighter on-screen colors and simpler graphics. You may find that you will even need a different font for your mobile website. Check that your site is visible in different visibility conditions for mobile, and consider speeding up load times by reducing flash and other motion graphics for mobile. Most importantly, make sure that your page is navigable on a mobile phone. Buttons and graphics that are too small or too close together will make this harder on the user.

Mobile pages can benefit from intense user testing and user interface (UI) updates. To get the most out of your mobile pages for conversion, work with a UI or User Interaction designer who tests often using conversion testing software. Like everything else, mobile page interaction has trends. A designer who uses testing software will help keep your page looking fresh and give you data to work with, so you don’t have to guess about where to go next with your site.

Bottom Line

Perhaps one of the most important choices you can make for your website is your website host. Separate from your operating system, web hosts vary in speed and quality. Some sites allow custom code changes and run various programs custom like Apache or Python, and some don’t run them very well, or they may be on an older version. You will want to shop around to find out how fast you can get your website performing based on internet hosting speeds and program running time.

Server hosting, code optimization, and web hosting are just a few of the things that will make your website run efficiently and enable you to run a customized, high-converting website. They are among the most important factors in both website speed and maintenance, along with search engine optimization (SEO) skill. You can learn more about code updates and SEO best practices by reading blogs, attending webinars and live conferences, and talking to experts. There is a wealth of information on updates to HTML and languages like Ruby available in order to help you customize your website.

About the author: Riya Sander is an inspired writer, passionate about traveling, lifestyle and encouraging startups. She understands the importance of productivity at work and never stopped finding new ways to create her work productivity. At the moment, she is a content marketing strategist for VPS HiSpeed, a virtual server company hosted in Thailand. Connect with Riya on Twitter. Gravatar

]]>https://webbiquity.com/website-design/website-hosting-coding-and-conversion-best-practices-for-small-business/feed/2Inbound Marketing: Everything You Need to Knowhttps://webbiquity.com/inbound-marketing/inbound-marketing-everything-you-need-to-know/
https://webbiquity.com/inbound-marketing/inbound-marketing-everything-you-need-to-know/#respondTue, 23 Oct 2018 10:42:13 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6693Guest post by Nick Rojas. Being at the forefront of marketing sometimes requires shifting resources away from old practices. That’s why 52% of outbound marketers say their marketing efforts are “ineffective”. In fact, inbound marketing is starting to be used more than outbound marketing. By understanding the effectiveness of inbound marketing, business-to-business (B2B) companies can […]

Being at the forefront of marketing sometimes requires shifting resources away from old practices. That’s why 52% of outbound marketers say their marketing efforts are “ineffective”. In fact, inbound marketing is starting to be used more than outbound marketing.

By understanding the effectiveness of inbound marketing, business-to-business (B2B) companies can achieve marketing goals in a faster, more efficient manner than previous efforts.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Brian Halligan, the co-founder of Hubspot, first conceived the term “inbound marketing.” Inbound marketing is a growth strategy utilized by marketers to increase brand awareness and drive traffic. Inbound refers to the consumers coming to the business rather than vice versa. Unlike outbound marketing, inbound marketing places the user’s interests first.

Rather than bombarding potential buyers with banners and TV ads, inbound marketing approaches and connects with prospective customers through useful material and content. This places the power with the buyer rather than the seller. By placing informative material and content throughout, a potential consumer can receive relevant information based on their specific searches.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps make your online content presence more visible and discoverable during search queries. The more relevant the information is to searches, the better the chance it will have to be ranked higher to be seen. Having good software architecture to optimize website navigation experience and search engine optimization could also improve your inbound marketing. Other key components, such as keywords and links, are just the tip of SEO tactics that can be used in your inbound marketing.

Content Marketing

Producing high-quality, useful, non-promotional content is a great way to market and educate potential consumers of your products or services. This valuable, top-of-the-funnel content can rank well in search and drive relevant website traffic. You can incorporate high-quality content by using blogs, news articles, videos, descriptions, and web page copy writing. It is also important to optimize for keyword phrases with a good balance of high monthly search volume and low organic SEO competition.

Social Media

Building and maintaining an active social media presence gives you a chance to promote content to current customers and help generate new leads. This can be done through either paid, organic, or a combination of tactics. Your business can purchase social media ads, promote pertinent content on your own channels, or form relationships with industry influencers on social networks.

Email Marketing

Traditionally associated with outbound marketing, a well-crafted inbound marketing email can attract highly qualified leads. Not to be mistaken for spam, the key to an inbound marketing email is to send valuable content with relevance to prospective customers. This can open up the potential of two-way communication through other channels, depending on the content of the email. The right email with the right content can pull a lead further along the B2B marketing funnel.

Benefits of Inbound Marketing

Higher ROI

Demonstrating return on investment (ROI)” is vital for B2B marketers when justifying budgets as well as evaluating the relative success of their campaigns.

Cost Effective

Inbound marketing can be more cost-effective than outbound marketing. By using inbound marketing, you can increase sales while staying within your current marketing budget. It is less expensive than traditional outbound marketing because of the tailored target demographics. Rather than broadcasting to a mass audience, inbound marketing targets content to their specific audience and entices that audience to come to them.

If done correctly, inbound marketing can generate cost-effective marketing leads through SEO, social media, content, and email initiatives. Although the process may appear daunting, higher ROI, more leads, and business growth should show the potential of inbound marketing.

]]>https://webbiquity.com/inbound-marketing/inbound-marketing-everything-you-need-to-know/feed/0The Value of Creativity for Live Eventshttps://webbiquity.com/events/the-value-of-creativity-for-live-events/
https://webbiquity.com/events/the-value-of-creativity-for-live-events/#commentsThu, 18 Oct 2018 10:42:24 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6679Guest post by Jennifer Kurland. Creativity comes from a place deep within. It is the spark that ignites imaginations and drives innovation. Creative minds break boundaries, take the abstract or mundane and transform it into something new, something that can change the world and our experience of it. In the live events arena, it takes […]

Creativity comes from a place deep within. It is the spark that ignites imaginations and drives innovation. Creative minds break boundaries, take the abstract or mundane and transform it into something new, something that can change the world and our experience of it.

In the live events arena, it takes creativity to create something spectacular. Something that’s never been done before. It requires a collaborative, creative process to create an immersive VR experience without a headset; a habitable pop-up hotel at SXSW; the USA’s first ever interactive, regulation-sized LED court; and win two Guinness Book of World Records.

The creative process is different for everyone. There is no right way to harness it. Whether you are a scenic designer, event planner, or accountant, tapping into that wellspring within can produce powerful results. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you connect to your creativity.

Don’t Get Caught up in the Process

Stop thinking about how to start. Set yourself a ten-minute timer and come up with 10 new ideas. Having a tight time frame and using personal productivity tools will allow you to move forward without investing in a outcome.

Don’t be Afraid to Experiment

Try new things. Research emerging event technologies, things you like or aspire to. Use them as a framework to solve a problem or remix what’s been done into something new.

Be Willing to Throw Out a Ton of Ideas

Ideas that at first seem silly often have merit. Put your pen to paper and jot down everything that comes to mind. Share them with colleagues, you’ll be surprised where it may lead.

Don’t be Afraid of Getting Shot Down

Sometimes we need to fail before we succeed. Not every idea or concept will resonate or will be practical. Often, we need to fine tune, to look to those who can execute, to shift or alter course in order for a creative spark to take hold. It took James Dyson 5,127 prototypes before he succeeded with the cyclonic vacuum cleaner.

Embrace your Uniqueness

Own your differences. Sometimes what we perceive as a weakness can be leveraged as a strength. Your uniqueness gives you a different point of view, use it to your advantage.

Let it Percolate

Creatives are often hit with inspiration at the oddest times. Keep your phone or a note pad next to your bed. Send yourself a voice memo when inspiration hits. When you allow an idea to slowly simmer on the back burner it will often surprise you by emerging as a fully-fledged concept.

]]>https://webbiquity.com/events/the-value-of-creativity-for-live-events/feed/2Six Ways to Connect with Hard-to-Reach Business Buyershttps://webbiquity.com/marketing-strategy/six-ways-to-connect-with-hard-to-reach-business-buyers/
Tue, 16 Oct 2018 10:44:47 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6696It’s a paradox of modern marketing that even with today’s ubiquitous high-speed wifi and cell connectivity, wide range of devices, and abundance of communication channels, business buyers seem harder to reach than ever. Many corporations have tight email filtering in place which renders many externally originating messages invisible. And even with those filters in place, […]

]]>It’s a paradox of modern marketing that even with today’s ubiquitous high-speed wifi and cell connectivity, wide range of devices, and abundance of communication channels, business buyers seem harder to reach than ever.

Many corporations have tight email filtering in place which renders many externally originating messages invisible. And even with those filters in place, inboxes are often overflowing, leaving buyers with little time or bandwidth to deal with any but the most urgent messages.

Banner ads? Sure, those work great—if you’re happy with a click-through rate of 0.05% (yes, that is five clicks for every 10,000 people who see your ad). Business Insider humorously reported a few years ago that you are statistically more likely to be dealt a full house in a poker game, win the Mega Millions lottery, have twins, be accepted into Harvard, complete Navy SEAL training, or survive a plane crash—among other things—than you are to click on a display ad.

And no one answers their phone anymore. When calling a typical company today, phone trees make it nearly impossible to reach any actual human, much less the one you hope to speak to. If you’ve got someone’s direct number, you may be in better shape; but the voicemail message you leave (assuming the person’s voice mailbox isn’t already full—an all too common occurrence) had better be pretty compelling to get them to return your call.

All of that said, business people do still have problems to solve. And your product or service may be exactly what they need to solve it. To increase the likelihood your prospect will actually learn about your offering at the right time, here are six ways to cut through the noise and get their attention.

Send (Lumpy) Direct Mail

Email was supposed to kill direct mail. But the reality is quite different. The very ease of sending (and deleting) email messages has made physical mail more appealing to recipients and less likely to be ignored. Forbes reports that “direct mail’s response rates are actually anywhere from 10 to 30 times higher than that of digital.”

Not just any direct mail, though. A couple sheets of paper folded neatly inside a standard business envelope isn’t going to inspire much excitement. Even a glossy multi-page flyer may not get much more than a few seconds of attention.

But “lumpy” mail—a three-dimensional object, inside a box or envelope—will almost always get opened and looked at. It suggests something of value (as package shipping isn’t cheap) and evokes curiosity.

You can go high ($50 to $100 per package) with a service like Video Plus Print, or keep it simpler with something closer to trade show swag. The key is to make it creative. Don’t send pointless lumpy mail purely for the purpose of getting your package opened (the direct mail equivalent of click bait). But tie the object you are sending to a relevant and compelling message, and you’ve got good odds of generating a response.

Embrace Marketing Partners

Marketing partners can get you in front of new audiences in a manner that reduces resistance and enhances trust. Partners are defined, in this context, as any non-competing organization that appeals to the same target market you do. This encompasses media, analysts, trade associations, conference producers, and complementary product vendors among others.

Partner marketing activities can include, but aren’t limited to:

cross-promoting each other’s content;

co-creating content or campaigns;

co-hosting webinars; and

co-exhibiting at trade shows and conferences.

An example might be a vendor of video surveillance systems partnering with a manufacturer of access control solutions. The product sets don’t compete but do both appeal to the same business security system buyer. This creates a “1+1=3” situation; each vendor benefits from exposure to the other’s CRM contacts, but together they may also reach new prospects neither has interacted with before.

The benefit is easy to understand: it’s the difference between introducing yourself to a stranger or being introduced by someone they trust.

Work With Industry Influencers

Influencer marketing can be viewed as a special case of partner marketing. But in this approach, a key component of the influencer’s business model is, often, the ability to forge connections between vendors and buyers.

The term “influencers” can cover a broad range of people, from journalists and bloggers to analysts, consultants, speakers, and even other business executives. The range of ways they can help, and their structures for providing that assistance, are similarly diverse.

An influencer may, for example, be willing to do certain simple tasks—such as publishing a guest post or contributing a quote for an expert roundup—without charge but just for the mutual benefit of the relationship. They may offer other avenues on a fee basis, such as providing content, co-hosting a webinar, speaking at a company event, conducting research, or promoting the company in their newsletter.

Influencer marketing is often done poorly, which reflects badly on the brand and individual doing the outreach. “Hi, we’ve never met before, but I want you to give me stuff,” is not a great way to start a conversation.

Ideally, influencer marketing should be approached as building a relationship. Both your company and the influencer have something of value to offer to your audience, and probably will for quite some time to come. So start with research and friendly outreach rather than jumping straight to the big ask. Here are six more keys to making influencer marketing work.

Use Personalization

We all have egos. And, dammit, each one of us wants to be treated as a unique individual! (Just like everyone else.)

Okay, seriously, as Brian Solis has noted, “Business buyers don’t go to work and forget what they do as humans.” They are increasingly coming to expect the same personalized experience they get as consumers from sites like Amazon.com to carry over into the B2B world.

Which link are you more likely to click on: “Hey, visit our website at randomvendor.com!” or “Bob, visit the page we created just for you at randomvendor.com/bobsmith” (pretending for a moment that your name is Bob Smith)?

Emotionally, people want to feel special. And practically, for business buyers, they want relevant content. Combining message personalization with targeted content saves buyers time and helps marketers cut through the clutter. Personalization at scale is still challenging, but evolving marketing automation tools are making it (somewhat) easier. And because buyers expect it, vendors who continue to blast out generic messages will lose ground to those who can align content with the needs of the right buyers at the right time.

Host and Exhibit at Live Events

A decade ago, people were talking about the death of trade shows and conferences. First, the dot-com bust of 2000 and then the terrorist attacks on 9/11 badly damaged the travel and events world. Then technologies like Skype, lower-cost video conferencing, and web conferencing tools seemed to make live meetings needless. The financial market meltdown in 2008 seemed like the final straw.

But the story didn’t turn out that way. Paradoxically, the increase in digital communications and isolating effects of “screen time” have magnified the value of and our craving for live, face to face interactions. Trade shows, conferences, networking events, and vendor-sponsored gatherings like roundtable dinners and road shows provide opportunities to have rich conversations and build trust in ways electronic communications can’t match.

According to Michael Brenner, event marketing works because “58% of marketers consider conferences, trade shows, and other events to be important for improving the customer experience (and, among B2B marketers) 67% believe events are their most effective content tool.” Nearly a third of marketers report that they devote 21% or more of their overall marketing budgets to event marketing.

Contrary to the worries of its impending demise a decade ago, event marketing has rebounded strongly and continues to grow, with 63% of marketers planning to increase both budgets for and the number of events they host or attend in 2019. Prospective buyers who may generally ignore your emails and avoid your webinars will likely talk to you at live events—and you’ll both get more value out of those conversations.

Amplify Your Content Through Vertical Websites

Across a growing number of industry segments, vertical websites are being launched that function much like trade magazines: they publish industry-related content, offer advertising and other promotional campaign opportunities to vendors, and may even host conferences.

The difference is that, instead of relying on a small stable of professional industry journalists, the content on these sites is supplied by a wide range of corporate bloggers, consultants, and other influencers. Vertical websites are essentially crowdsourced online trade publications. Algorithmically, based on reader response, the best content gets pushed to the top.

For example, in the human resources (HR) technology space, Human Resource Executive is a traditional trade journal. But sites like HR Gazette, Human Resources Today, and HR Tech Weekly are vertical sites that serve a similar audience with content produced by a variety of industry experts. Both types of sites serve similar purposes and the same audience, but vertical sites offer a new path for vendors to reach potential buyers seeking industry insights.

Today’s business buyers can be difficult to reach. Email inboxes are overflowing. The explosion in online content makes SEO increasingly challenging. Social media coverage is spotty.

But using the techniques above can help vendors cut through the noise, reach buyers when they are looking for solutions, and start mutually beneficial conversations.

]]>How to Get Started with Inbound Marketinghttps://webbiquity.com/marketing-strategy/how-to-get-started-with-inbound-marketing/
Thu, 11 Oct 2018 11:14:39 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6674Guest post by Mario Medina. You’re no doubt familiar with the concept of inbound marketing, but did you know that it’s (arguably) more effective and economical than traditional marketing methods? If your organization is still relying primarily on disruptive marketing methods (like pop-up ads, cold calling, and spammy mass emails) it’s time to look at […]

You’re no doubt familiar with the concept of inbound marketing, but did you know that it’s (arguably) more effective and economical than traditional marketing methods? If your organization is still relying primarily on disruptive marketing methods (like pop-up ads, cold calling, and spammy mass emails) it’s time to look at boosting your efforts with inbound marketing methods.

But how do you get started with inbound marketing? This beginner’s guide will help you navigate the transition to inbound methods and will highlight the benefits you can expect by doing so.

What Is Inbound Marketing?

Inbound marketing is about drawing people in by sharing useful, relevant information that is helpful to them. Interesting, high-quality content will attract leads and (hopefully) help turn them into delighted customers and advocates.

The traditional way of doing things, otherwise known as outbound marketing, is often considered “disruptive” — think about getting unexpected cold calls, spammy mass emails or pop-ups that you swat away. Not very appealing, right?

Most importantly, with inbound marketing you’re providing value to your customers and prospects with your content. Providing helpful information can then help to build brand loyalty and brand authority—making you the trusted experts in your field!

How Do I Get Started with Inbound Marketing?

These steps can help you get started with inbound marketing.

Step 1: Set SMART Goals

The first step to creating an effective inbound marketing plan is to set goals. Most importantly, your goals should be SMART (you’ve probably seen this before).

What does a SMART goal look like? Here are examples: “I want to increase my website’s traffic by 25% in the next 90 days, generate 20 more leads in the next month, and close five new sales.”

Step 2: Create Buyer Personas

Before determining what kind of content you’ll need to reach those goals, you need to create your buyer personas. Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your target customer based on real data and some educated guesses.

Buyer personas help you to think of your customers as real people, so that you can understand the content they want, their goals and behaviors, their buying motivations and behaviors, and where to find them online.

To start creating your buyer personas, you’ll need to find out some information about your existing customers. Start by surveying your current customers. Even after your research, you will probably need to do a bit of speculating.

Step 3: Understand the Buyer’s Journey

Inbound marketing isn’t just about presenting the right content to the right person; it’s also about offering it at the right time. Buyers go through different stages of the “Buyer’s Journey” before making a purchase decision:

In the Awareness Stage of the Buyer’s Journey, the buyer is experiencing a problem or opportunity but hasn’t clearly defined their need.

In the Consideration Stage, the buyer has clearly identified what they need. In this stage, the buyer researches all available solutions to their problem.

In the Decision Stage, the buyer has decided on a solution and is narrowing down vendors and products in preparation to make their purchase.

Moving leads through the stages to the sale is all about nurturing them. Nurturing means using the right content at the right time to build a long-term relationship with them.

Step 4: Create Your Content

Different people (or the same people at different stages) will respond to different types of content, so it’s a good idea to produce a variety of content that speaks to buyers in all three stages. Here are a few examples of what types of content you should produce for each stage of the buyer’s journey:

So, how do you get your content in front of the right people? First, make sure it’s optimized for search. Making smart search engine optimization (SEO) choices can help more visitors find your site. You should also promote your content on your social media channels and through email marketing.

Step 5: Monitor and Evaluate Your Results

As the final step (and one which feeds back into creating more effective content), analyze your efforts, using the proper marketing analytics tools. What’s converting leads? What’s not? Which buyer personas need more attention? Can you add buyer personas? How can you improve your SEO and keyword rankings?

Inbound marketing is an ongoing process. Even after you’ve converted leads to customers, you should keep answering their questions, providing information that helps them reach their goals, solve their problems, and become advocates for your brand.

Many marketers choose to start inbound marketing on their own, but to find success, you need your whole team on your side. That’s because a solid inbound marketing plan requires such a wide range of skills, expertise and tools. Partnering with an agency or expert consultants puts all of those skills at your fingertips.To learn more about getting started with inbound marketing and content creation, check out the Inbound Marketing Comic Book.

Mario Medina, Creative Director and Co-Founder at madison/miles media, is a communications veteran with expertise in content and brand strategy, product development, and content production and management. He has successfully managed content portfolios for companies such as Dallas Market Center, Dell, Thomson Reuters, and has won more than four dozen awards for his team’s projects.

]]>Four Great Ways to Use Personalization in Digital Marketinghttps://webbiquity.com/email-marketing/four-great-ways-to-use-personalization-in-digital-marketing/
https://webbiquity.com/email-marketing/four-great-ways-to-use-personalization-in-digital-marketing/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2018 11:04:02 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6682Guest post by Stefan Debois. Today, personalization is more important than ever, as consumers and business decision makers alike are overloaded with content. While a lot of information gets ignored, personalized content tends to hit home. That should come as no surprise. When someone hears their own name, that triggers a unique reaction in those parts […]

Today, personalization is more important than ever, as consumers and business decision makers alike are overloaded with content. While a lot of information gets ignored, personalized content tends to hit home.

Image credit: Autopilot

That should come as no surprise. When someone hears their own name, that triggers a unique reaction in those parts of the brain associated with long-term memory. A similar reaction takes place in the brain when people receive personalized content. They tend to remember it for much longer, too.

Additionally, a study by University of Texas shows that personalization helps consumers in two ways: Tailored content makes consumers feel that they have some control over what they wish to see, and it saves them from information overload.

Here are four areas where your business can benefit from using personalization in your digital marketing.

1. Personalization in Email Marketing

Here are a few interesting statistics from various (case) studies suggesting how much of a difference personalization can make in your email campaigns:

According to Statista, the open rate for personalized emails is 18.8%, compared to 13.1% without any personalization.

Research by Aberdeen suggests that personalized email messages improve click-through rates by an average of 14% and conversions by 10%.

Campaign Monitor shares data which found that emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.

But email personalization also has its challenges. Getting personalization right is just as important as doing it in the first place.

Image credit: Elastic Email

So, apart from adding the first name of your prospect in the salutation, what else can you do to personalize your emails?

Compliment a piece of content published by the prospect

Personalize the call-to-action (CTA) based on prospect’s buyer persona

Personalize who you send from: include name, title and picture of sending person

Geographical personalization: “Hope you have a nice evening there in Chicago!”

2. Personalization in Online Advertising

Personalized advertising is the act of using insights into whom a customer might be to increase the relevancy of an ad. These insights can be as simple as human wants/needs, geolocation, and basic demographic information, to more specific insights such as buying intent and even behavioral patterns.

Here’s an example: a user visits Harry’s site through search. They reach a product page or even the checkout page, but then leave the site before completing their order. They show interest, but something prevented them from making a purchase.

Image credit: Sleeknote

Later, they see an ad like the one at right on Facebook.

A retargeting ad like this works well for a couple of reasons:

It’s personalized: “Still not convinced?” addresses the fact that reader is already thinking about buying. The user visited the site before, but something prevented them from moving forward.

It focuses on benefits over features. Harry’s customer-centric copy focuses on what the reader stands to gain from taking action.

Since 98% of visitors to your site won’t make a purchase on their first visit, retargeting ads like those from the Harry’s example nudge customers toward a conversion.

But while retargeting is generally used with people who have been to your site, there’s a new workaround that allows you to retarget anyone that clicks a link that you control. Link retargeting is as simple as adding your retargeting pixel code—be it Facebook, Google, Twitter, or otherwise—to your branded link, so that anyone who clicks on the link is added to your retargeting audience.

3. Website Personalization

Personalizing your emails and advertisements is a great start, but to really make the most of personalization, consider personalizing the pages people see once they click on the CTA in your email message or online ad, as recommended by Instapage.

According to Andrzej Bieda from Landingi, personalization means keeping the customer at the center of everything that you do in sales and marketing:

“You should focus on two aspects. First, step into your customer’s shoes. What they need, want and desire. Talk to them in this way, not saying how great features your product or service has to offer. The second one is that you should consequently follow your message and stick to it, on every step, so ad, email, social media, landing page. It is essential to keep your potential customer in the same matter across the whole funnel, not to lose their focus and the attention they’ve got at the first touch point.”

Valentin Radu, CEO of Omniconvert, adds: “What is not being said is that simply using the location and the traffic source in order to personalize the web experience is not delivering a lot of added value.”

Before starting to personalize the web experience for the sake of making the website “better,” you should consider WHY are you personalizing.

The answers are often split into two directions: creating a better user experience (UX) and more conversions. Of course, better UX usually leads to more conversions, but not always.

Weather conditions: sunny, raining, the temperature in Celsius or Kelvin

Behavior: time on site, number of sessions, number of page views, time since the last visit, etc

Technology: browser, resolution, device, operating system

Custom: GTM data layer attribute, specific cookies, data from the CRM

Omage credit: Landingi

Here’s is an example of a landing page that Prowly uses to target German prospects.

If you’re dealing with personal information from EU citizens, you need to take into account GDPR: personalization is still possible under GDPR, provided that you get prior consent from the customer or prospect to use his or her data for personalized marketing communication.

Another really powerful method for landing page personalization is using the RFM (recency, frequency, monetary) model. In a nutshell, by knowing (R) how recently a customer bought from you, (F) how many orders he or she placed, and (M) the total value of his or her orders, you can detect the love level this customer has for you and can prepare a relevant, personal experience for him or her.

Each customer gets a score from one to five for each of the three parameters. According to their scores, you will end up having your audience segmented into:

True lovers: R=5, F=5, M=5

Ex-lovers: R=1, F=5, M=5

Don Juans: R=5, F=1, M=5.

And then you can really come up with some crazy ideas, focusing on who really matters to your business.

Fun fact—RFM segmentation enables you to draw conclusions such as that a “true lover” is 80 times more valuable than a Don Juan.

4. Personalization in Content Marketing

Not all of your content will drive loads of conversions. A large share of your organic traffic will land on pages where the main purpose is informing rather than converting potential customers.

Image credit: Bid4Papers

One way to add some value to these prospects is by asking them a number of questions and giving them some (personalized) information at the end. This can be done by embedding a quiz or assessment on your site, like in this example from Bid4Papers.

This works in two ways: the visitor learns something in an engaging way, and in the meantime you collect information that you can use for subsequent personalization.

A person answers a “smart” questionnaire (which asks follow-up questions based on previously given answers).

The system calculates what pre-defined segment the respondent belongs to.

The outcome/result of the questionnaire is specially created for that segment, making it highly relevant and personal.

In a B2B environment, a personalization tactic that works really well is to auto-email a branded and personalized PDF report based on the answers visitors provided. The PDF report includes personalized recommendations—making it appear as if it was written by a consultant—giving it a high perceived value.

(Be cautious with this tactic, however: only do it if you can do it well. A number of low-end SEO software sites offer free, automated “SEO audits” which are superficial, often inaccurate, and not even close to a substitute for an actual professional website audit.)

Image credit: Survey Anyplace

BONUS TIP: Don’t forget the offline channel for delivering personalized content! Sending free copies of relevant books to specific people can grab their attention in a world where most things are digital. Not only do these tactics create loyal consumers, they also tend to create buzz on social media that tells other potential users about the software.

Image source: And Co

For example, And Co sends free books about running an independent business to specific people in its audience (freelancers).

Conclusion

This makes sense because people like to feel special. Using one or more of these examples of personalization will help take your digital marketing to the next level.

However, to make the most of this approach, we recommend personalization across all channels and phases in your sales funnel. In fact, increasing personalization in more channels can increase overall consumer spending up to 500%!

Stefan Debois is the founder and CEO of Survey Anyplace, an online software tool to create engaging surveys, quizzes and assessments. Besides kitesurfing, Stefan is passionate about the use of technology to build professional relationships with people, at scale. Connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

]]>https://webbiquity.com/email-marketing/four-great-ways-to-use-personalization-in-digital-marketing/feed/2Six Benefits of Business Process Automation for Your Small Businesshttps://webbiquity.com/marketing-strategy/six-benefits-of-business-process-automation-for-your-small-business/
Tue, 02 Oct 2018 10:26:22 +0000https://webbiquity.com/?p=6661Guest post by Kurt Webber. Automating business operations and processes provides several benefits, including lower costs and higher quality. And business automation is no longer just for large enterprises. Smaller companies are using smart tools to reduce their labor costs and improve efficiency when processing orders and managing the customer-relationship experience. From the warehouse to […]

Automating business operations and processes provides several benefits, including lower costs and higher quality. And business automation is no longer just for large enterprises. Smaller companies are using smart tools to reduce their labor costs and improve efficiency when processing orders and managing the customer-relationship experience.

From the warehouse to marketing to shipping and receiving, you can automate your business tasks as a way of increasing your bottom line and improving customer satisfaction. Take the redundancy out of your business while improving consistency. Here are half a dozen noteworthy benefits of small business automation.

Scalability as Your Business Grows

Small business owners can hit a wall if they see a sudden rise in orders. A rapid change in demand can put your company at risk if you don’t have the people or resources to fill these orders on the agreed-upon timeline. This can lead to poor customer service and delivery delays, which can damage your company’s reputation over time.

But instead of trying to hire more workers and increase your operations on a tight deadline, use warehouse automation tools like smart picking and stocking that scale up with your business. Some of these robots can retrieve as many as 1,000 packages per hour.

You can adjust the speed based on the number of orders you have coming in the door. If your operations are doubling or tripling in a short period of time, you can always invest in more automated technology without having to train new employees.

Reduced Errors When Processing Orders and Managing Resources

Warehouse workers statistically have a picking accuracy rate of 90 to 95 percent. A 90 percent accuracy rate might not seem intolerable, but that could add up to hundreds of inaccurate orders per month. Smart warehouse tools usually come with an accuracy rate of around 99 percent, which will help you improve customer relations and build a better reputation for your company. Packages are routinely scanned as the order is prepared, leaving little room for error.

But a reduced error rate doesn’t only apply to the warehouse. Automation tools can help you improve accuracy throughout your business. Smart shipping systems print shipping labels automatically, so you don’t have to worry about sending an item to the wrong address. Smart invoicing and bookkeeping tools help you better manage your company’s finances. Scheduling software programs reduce errors when managing your employees. Smart inventory tools automatically track the number of items on the shelf, so you don’t have to worry about manually counting items and remembering to place new orders.

Improving Customer Satisfaction

When you’re competing with ecommerce giants like Amazon and Walmart, which have product distribution centers all over the country, you can’t afford to delay the product delivery timeline. Automation reduces picking inaccuracy, so your customers will always receive the right order.

But you can also use technology to automate the business-customer relationship, helping you keep your customers informed if you run low on a specific product or if a shipment is taking longer than expected. You can also quickly respond to customer questions and complaints using an automated system. If someone has a complaint about one of your products, you can pull up their order number, delivery date and purchase history with ease.

Managing your inventory and assembling orders doesn’t have to take up a lot of space. Instead of having your warehouse employees use large pieces of equipment to grab products and prepare orders, you can use automation to make more efficient use of your warehouse space. Omnidirectional robots and smart picking tools help you compress your storage space. These bots can slide in and out of tight spaces with ease, so you don’t have to worry about large trucks and robotic lifts taking up all the square footage in your facility.

Automated invoicing and bookkeeping also help you free up some of your office space. If you keep several backups of your digital files on an external hard drive or the cloud, you don’t have to fill up the space with a bunch of file cabinets.

Reduced Labor Costs

Perhaps the biggest benefit of business automation is reducing your labor costs. From employees in the warehouse to bookkeeping and marketing, you won’t have to hire as many employees to get the job done. While some of these automation tools can be costly at the start, you can reduce your overhead over time and gradually pay off your investment.

Adding more smart technology to your business paves the way for more IT personnel but dealing with the occasional software glitch is not as costly or time-consuming as hiring and retaining dozens of employees.

If you find yourself constantly searching for quality employees who are going to stick around for more than a few months, you can upgrade your business operations to incorporate more technology so you can focus on hiring just a few skilled workers.

More Time on Your Hands

Let’s face it, many small business owners are doing everything themselves. If you fit this description, automating some of your business operations will help you make better use of your time as an entrepreneur. You can spend more time finding exciting opportunities to grow your business and establishing lasting partnerships in your industry. You shouldn’t have to waste your time on redundant processes and labor-intensive tasks like printing shipping labels and posting on Facebook.

From managing your employees to processing orders and shipping out packages, business automation is here to help you better manage your business. You can free up more of your time, save money on labor and improve your company’s reputation by working smarter, not harder. As an entrepreneur, you can clear the busywork from your schedule so you can focus on the bigger picture. Refocus your efforts and resources by adopting business automation today.

Kurt Webber started Blanco in 1996 after working in the label industry for more than 10 years. Kurt has experience with almost every known pressure sensitive label application and is very involved in Production and Marketing at Blanco. Kurt’s wife, Alice, works alongside him at Blanco. They have 3 adult sons, a couple of pups, and a cat. Kurt is an avid outdoorsman, he enjoys hunting, fishing, and hiking.